Happy Anniversary to us!

Today we are celebrating 3 years of marital bliss. I am so thankful for the man that God gave me! I love you so much Matthew! Matt rearranged his work schedule so we could go out to eat tonight while his mom watches Ethan. I am hoping to try the Melting Pot because we've never eaten there before, but who knows what tonight may bring. Hopefully it won't follow the fortune cookie I got today- "Today will bring disaster- you either need to beat em' or join em'" How crazy is that?! It made me sad to get that on my anniversary....good thing I don't believe in that rubbish or I might have a rough night. HAPPY ANNIVERSARY TO US!!!!!

You know you're southern when...

You know you're a southerner when you can go to a nearby restaurant and get fried macaroni and cheese for an appetizer! Boy was it SO good.... did I mention that you dip it in Ranch?! MMMMM!

Lake James- Part 1

Well we just got back from a family vacation with my in-laws at Lake James. Matt's Dad and step-mom rented a huge lake house for a week and we stayed for about 4 days. There were 10 adults and 3 kids staying in a nice four bedroom house. We had a wonderful time. Our trip consisted of bonding, boating, playing Wizard (a great card game), gem mining, and touring the Linville Caverns. Of course I cannot post all my pictures that I want in one posting, but here are some of the highlights. (Pictures are in random order)
p.s. My brother-in-law teased me the whole time about blogging and taking pictures, yet he asked me to send him some of the pictures I took. Oh yeah! He knows he wants to be like me, ha! Although, I do have to say that we took over 250 pictures in 4 days!

Touring the Linville Caverns

Playing Wizard- I totally lost.... badly
Ethan and mommy in the caves
My nephew Jackson kissed the pool chalk
Matt excited about the gems he found... he found a nice ruby

Lake James- Part 2

I'm sifting for gems....I had no luck

Ethan "tubing" on the pontoon boat
Ethan loves driving boats... he is showing his Granddaddy how to drive.
Jackson loved catching himself in the fishing net
Our family at the entrance of Linville Caverns

I have a problem.

I have a problem. The first step to getting over the problem is getting past denial, right?! I am going to officially start a group called "ASA" which will stand for "Addicted to Shopping Annonymous". I cannot go into a store without buying more than I went in for. My biggest struggle... TARGET. Example: I went to Target the other day to get formula. I came out with.... A pack of 3 head bands, sunglasses, baby oatmeal, and 2 pairs of shoes for Ethan. The sad thing... I didn't even come out with what I went there to get in the first place! Target and Walmart LOVE me. They prey on people like me. With their huge sale signs and remarkably low prices. It's just too good to be true. The sunglasses, baby oatmeal, and shoes were all "on sale". I just couldn't live without them. I mean after all, Ethan is burning holes in his shoes, he HAD to get 2 pair! HAAAA! He doesn't even walk yet! Yikes. So I guess I am making a break through, because i've gotten past the first step of denial. Does anyone want to be a part of my group?!

p.s. My husband and I are crazy, instead of leaving for the lake tomorrow we are leaving tonight when he gets off of work at 10:00 which means we won't get to the lake house until 2:00 or 3:00a.m. Fun times!

Sunday- a day of rest?

Yesterday was crazy! My poor husband had to work a kids triathalon at the YMCA before church. He left the house at 6:45a.m. We went to church where we were both working in seperate kids rooms. I was in with seven 2 year old boys. WOW! That was interesting. I love working in there because the time flies by because they don't stand or sit in one spot for more than 6 seconds. After church my husband and I went out to Jordan Lake where our church would be having a baptism later that night. We picked up KFC and went to find our reserved shelter at the lake. We were there for a while before people really started to show up. It was a BEAUTIFUL day out at the lake! We couldn't have asked for better weather. A couple of girl friends and I went down and sat in the water for a while. We had to escape my husband and brother-in-laws sibiling rivalry with horse shoes! I actually had to leave a little early from the lake because Ethan is used to eating at 7:00p.m. and going down to bed for the night after that. So, since we are still living about 45 minutes/hour away I had to leave. It was just a non-stop day. But I loved it! For someone who stays at home all day long I love the days that are crammed full of excitement. Anyhow, to finish the day... or I guess start the next day... I woke up at 1:30a.m. to my baby boy screaming at the top of his lungs. (Talk about freaking you out) Well I ran into his room and his arm was up under the bumper in his crib and he was trying to pull his arm in but he was caught. So I took the bumper off completely and we both went back to sleep. Ahhhhh.
Today I am meeting a friend for lunch then we are meeting my parents for dinner because we are leaving to go vacation at Lake James for a few days and while we are gone my parents are heading to Colorado. So we won't see them for a few weeks. As soon as we get back from the lake it is MOVE TIME! I really need to start packing. I've organized a few things and Matt and I have both gone through our closets to get rid of some clothes we don't wear anymore. But there is lots to be done. Well i'm off, I need to shower while my little one is napping. Here are some photos for you to enjoy.
*p.s. The reason why I put captions above the pictures is so when you are scrolling down you can read about what you are getting ready to see.

My husband and brother-in-law duking it out in horse shoes.

Ethan napping at the lake- later I found out that water diapers don't hold pee. When I got him up his pack-n-play was soaked. Silly mommy.
Swimming or cleaning off the pee from nap time!
Random pic of Ethan learning to sit on his own. He sits there for 30 seconds and gradually falls over, ha ha.

Roses

I think sometimes we expect life to be easy. We expect to be treated like royalty and for everyone to love us and feel loved. Today I was having a rough day. I was down about a lot of things... my weight, staying home by myself all day long with Ethan, feeling lonely and inadequate, having Matt gone a lot, and just feeling generally discontent. I know the root of it all is that I am not spending time in God's word like I need to be. It seems like when life isn't going well, it's not because I am being faced with trials, but because I am trying to go through life on my own. God never promised life to be easy. He never said it was going to be a bed of roses. But he did promise to be with us through it all. He promised to take care of our needs. While my life is so incredibly blessed, I still take it for granted sometimes. So this morning when I was going through all of this, I wrote my husband an e-mail at work just venting. My absolutely wonderful husband brought me some roses. It's not that he just brought me flowers, it's that he read my e-mail. In the middle of work he told his boss he had to go home, he stopped by a store and bought me something beautiful to make me feel loved and beautiful. Then when he got here we sat on the couch and talked. I just cried. I thank God every day for Matt. I know a lot of you women have wonderful husbands, and I truly thank God for that. I love him so much more than I could ever show him.... and when you think about that... and you think about those of you that are parents and love your children so much...then you have to be blown away by the love that God has for us. It is immeasurable. So when i'm having these rough days and I doubt everything that I know, I need to remember that I have a God who loved me so much that he gave me JESUS, the only thing that could make my relationship right with him. And he gave me my husband, the perfect man for me. Thank you, God. I am so undeserving.
And because i'm a picture freak, I want to show you the roses and my son...another gift of God! I also want to show you the sky God painted for us tonight. The picture will not do justice to the real thing.

Reflecting

I just put Ethan down for a nap and I was thinking about how big he is getting. I remember putting him down for naps when he was a newborn. I had to be careful to hold his little head because he had no neck strength. His blank stare would be staring off at the ceiling, but I was hoping he really saw his mommy. Now he is so heavy that my muscles strain to get him over the edge of the crib. He stares back with huge eyes and a big beautiful smile. His legs kick with excitement as if to protest, "mommy, i'm really not tired" but I can see that he is about to drift off to sleep as soon as I leave the room.
It is SO amazing how fast they grow up. He sits up with some help, touches my face when i'm feeding him, tries to pet the back of the couch when i'm burping him, and his whole face lights up whenever he sees mommy and daddy. We love making him crack up and the thing I love the best is that he LOVES snuggling. He can lay contently in our arms and he will smile and coo and absolutely LOVES to cuddle with mommy and daddy. I know he will become an active tough boy, but I really hope he continues cuddling. Sometimes I want another one right now, but I am quickly snapped back into reality when I think about how huge of a job it is to be a mother to one right now. I would love for him to be 3 or 4 when we have another one. I'm putting in an order for a girl right now, ha ha but we will take whatever we can get when the time is right. We just thank and praise God for gifting us with him, especially when the possiblity of having a child was very grim for me.
Anyhow, thanks for listening to me ramble. I am posting a picture of the day we took him home from the hospital to reflect on the day our lives dramatically changed. Praise the Lord for blessings that He gives that we don't deserve.

p.s.

5 months ago today I gave birth to my beautiful baby boy... Actually is was right about now that I went for just a check up, found out I was in labor, then I would be having a c-section at 5:10p.m. tonight!
Time is flying by!

Home Sweet Home

Well I gotta say that it is good to be back home. I had 6 loads of laundry to do from camp and I went grocery shopping yesterday because we hadn't been in a month! So now I just need to get the apartment clean and start thinking about going through stuff and packing to move! Next week is a family vacation with my husband's side of the family. We will be going to Lake James for 3 days. Then after that it is move time! Matt and I are currently job hunting and making lists of things we need to do. My blog life will be pretty boring for a while, but I hope to keep appealing to the masses ;) ha ha!

CWR- Day 6

Well today is the last official day of camp. We went out on the ski boat this afternoon. Ethan pretty much fell asleep 10 minutes into the ride even though he had just had a 2 hour nap. I am sure the hum of the engine and the motion of the waves put him to sleep. It was so funny to see him in his little life jacket. He looked like the kid in the snow suit in the movie A Christmas Story. It has been a great week here at camp. We've enjoyed getting out when we could. My husband is definitely still a kid at heart. He kept up with these middle schoolers on the energy level. I'm sure this won't be shocking to you, but I have over 200 pictures from this week. If you want to see them all you can come over and see the slide show, ha ha. Here are the pictures from this afternoon!

"Alright, let's go boatin'!"

"Hugging my ski-boat driver, Brandon"
"Oh yeah, check out those waves!"
"Mom, I can't breath, you have this life jacket on so tight!"
"I talked Brandon into letting me take this baby for a spin...if only I could reach the steering wheel!"

CWR- Day 5

Today was a gorgeous day. Matt took Ethan for an hour this afternoon so I could go lay out on the swim dock. I got a little bit of sun, but not much. Matt played ALL day. Ethan was in such a good mood this afternoon...we made him laugh for like an hour. It is SO fun to hear him laugh so hard. I love it! Ethan and I went for a walk earlier today and I took some pictures and they turned out awesome... his eyes look SO beautiful to me. You can't really see the fullness on here but you can get the jist. Anyhow, not much else to say. Tomorrow we are going to take Ethan out on the ski-boat so I hope to get some good last pictures at camp. Tomorrow is the last full day of camp and Saturday the parents come pick the kids up and we do an hour program for them and then we're heading home! Then maybe i'll take a break from blogging ;)

My beautiful baby boy

Our sun-kissed cheeks

CWR- Day 5

GOOD MORNING! It is a beautiful morning here at camp. Nice and cool breeze this morning. Ethan slept great but woke up at 6:00.am. jabbering to himself. I love listening to him jabber. You just wonder what he's talking about. "Hey, look it is the ceiling... I see that so often...I wonder if mommy will make weird faces at me today...guess I have to smile again to make her happy, what a silly mommy....wonder what i'm going to eat for breakfast...rice cereal and formula or....rice cereal and formula... ahhh, the choices." Ha ha!
Anyhow, last night after Matt's talk we sat out on the boxcar steps and laughed and had fun together. It was like we were a dating couple flirting. I love those times that we just have fun together. I encourage everyone to have fun with your spouses. Matt and I's new favorite game is to throw pens at each other in the apartment. We duck behind our couch or in the kitchen like we're throwing grenades in a battle field. It is so much fun and dorky. We just laugh and laugh and run around. Who says you have to go out for entertainment?! Then there's always the times where I try and throw him off the bed. Then with one quick swoop of his arm, I end up on the floor. So anyway, I included some fun pictures of us being dorks last night. Yay for dorks!

** I took a picture of us kissing, but I thought I would spare you the mushy stuff.

I can't believe I opened my mouth up so big that you can see my hangy ball thing in the back of my throat...and what's up with Matt's tongue??

p.s. I've had some amazing quiet times here this week. Life is so much greater when we are in a right relationship with our creator. My marriage is so much better as well. Yes camp is an easier place to get alone with God, but I don't think it's a magic formula... I just think that i'm actually taking the time to spend in the Word and I don't make that a priority at home. I praise the Lord that HE is so faithful even when I am not. If we were a dating couple, he should of broken up with me by now. But praise Him that he loves us enough to forgive. I really hope and pray that my relationship with Him will change and I will make Him a priority in my every day life, not just when it is convenient.

CWR- Day 4

Well we ended up making it to the lake this afternoon. We had fun swimming in the water. Then Matt took Ethan back to the boxcar and I stayed out and swam a little longer. Then we had another storm but this time it looked like "the nothing" from the Never Ending Story. It rolled in off the lake and was like a tornado. I got some video footage on my digital camera. Ethan went straight to sleep right when I put him down for the night, so hopefully he won't wake up again tonight like last night. Matt is glad to be done with most of his talks. He really only has 2 more mornings and then the Friday night campfire talk which is short. It has been a great week and the kids have loved Matt. They also can't keep their hands off Ethan. I had to tell a girl not to touch his face today because she was all over him, ha! Below are more pictures from the lake today. I tried to get a good picture of him in his suit for my mom. Also, his hat was flipped up so we could get a good shot of his face. The last picture is a glimpse of the storm rolling in. Enjoy!

CWR- Day 4

Sorry I haven't posted yet today, a certain brother-in-law was giving me grief for posting so much so I went on a temporary strike. As you can see i'm not scared ;)

Well last night was an interesting night. Ethan was upset during the night about something and I couldn't figure it out. We changed the diaper, took gas medicine, took tylenol, rocked and when all of that failed. He got into bed with us at 4:30, went straight to sleep and slept until morning. Not sure what was going on. There's so many spiders around here, i'm hoping nothing bit him. So anyhow, we haven't done much today other than go for a walk this morning. Somehow I have managed to under pack in one area and that is an important area- FOOD FOR ETHAN. I am hoping he will make it with his formula until we get home, but it is looking pretty grim. I also under packed his peas, so he had pears today for the first time. He was not thrilled with the fruit, so maybe he will be the opposite of his daddy and uncle mike and LOVE VEGETABLES. We'll see. I think it was just too sweet for him after eating some peas. I may have to run to Wal-mart and get more peas and buy some enfamil or something because the closest Target is an hour away and we all know now that Target brand formula is the best and what Ethan uses. I mean I thought for sure we would have enough stuff because we brought our whole apartment with us. It is pretty stinkin' amazing that we didn't have to take two cars. You just need SO much stuff for babies. This proven yesterday after breakfast when he changed into outfit number 3 from spit up, ha ha.
Well good thing i'm a proud mom, or you might have gotten a blog without pictures right now. But have no fear, I snapped these this morning.*Note the train onesie which coincides with the camp theme- I know, we're dorks but we didn't buy any of these they were random gifts when he was born.

Mommy being a goof while Daddy was practicing his talk for this morning (Note Ethan's hand placement)

Ethan grabbing a chunk of mommy's hair during our photo shoot- ouch! (He may look all innocent, but he has his uncle mike's shananigans)

Daddy loving on Ethan

CWR- Day 3

Good thing we went out earlier today when we did because it stormed all afternoon into the early evening. There was lightening zapping all around. Right when we stepped out to go to the dining hall and big one struck real close. I had Ethan in his bath towel hoodie hugging him so close he probably couldn't breath and we walked REAL fast. I was prepared to run as fast as I could if another one popped close, but it didn't. All of their afternoon activities were cancelled so they went to the gym and played pin-dodge, which is a version of dodge ball. Matt has a "cannon" as the campers called it and whipped balls at the boys. It's amazing that no one lost an eye or their head, ha ha. He had a great time and is showing signs of it= sunburned face, swollen hand and fingers, as well as torn up feet from running around barefoot. Ethan and I don't have much to show for ourselves, ha ha. We may make it out into the lake again tomorrow because my mom wants a good picture of him in his swimming trunks. Believe me, we have TONS of pictures, I guess ya'll are getting a glimpse of that fact.

Storm clouds rolling in

Matt about to take the head off of some boys in pin dodge- they all scrambled away in fright

CWR- Day 3

Well one thing is for sure, it is SO stinkin' hot outside. We are out and about when we can but I have to be mindful of our precious one. This morning we went out and walked around while Daddy played frisbee and soccer. I don't think we'll go into the lake today, but we are going to walk around with Daddy this afternoon to highropes and the big swing. Matt is currently trying to run the middle schoolers in the ground with basketball. He scoped out the classes yesterday to see which ones had real "ballers". We are enjoying our time here at CWR but in a way I am ready to get back home. There's just something about the comfort of sleeping in your own bed that you miss when you're away on trips. But we will take advantage of every minute we can. I was picturing what it would be like next year if Matt came to speak again. Ethan would be running around everywhere instead of us carrying him...time flies too fast.

Inside time with mommy

Daddy playing soccer
Mommy trying to be a photographer
Ethan on our walk this morning- everyone says he is the cutest and happiest baby, I would have to agree.
The whole reason we are here this week.

CWR- Day 3

Good Morning!
We had a great night last night. Matt said he talk went real well. Ethan and I stayed in the boxcar because his bedtime is before Matt talks. Ethan slept wonderfully last night. He didn't make a peep until the alarm clock woke us all up this morning. It is so loud...I might have to fix that somehow. We just finished eating breakfast. I love camp food. I think we eat better here than we do at home sometimes. Although, I do have to say that i've never had corn dog nuggets. That was a first here yesterday. Anyhow, not sure what the day will bring. Matt doesn't have to speak tonight because a counselor is giving their testimony so we might take advantage of the afternoon and play more because he won't have to practice for tonight. But we'll see. Well Ethan is going down for a nap, Matt is leaving to do his morning talk, so I need to figure out what I want to do for the next 2 hours. Bye for now.

P.s. Happy 100th post to me!

CWR- Day 2

Well we made it out to the lake after lunch. Ethan liked it but isn't old enough to really want to play in the water. At first his little bottom jaw was shivering from the water, but he warmed up real fast. The kids LOVE Ethan and want to touch him all over, especially his bald head. So here are more pictures from our week at camp!

The outside of our home

Ethan in his sun hat chillin in the jogger before lunch
Ethan with daddy before heading into the lake
Ethan with mommy in his floaty
Ethan swimming with mommy